Interview with Karina Elver

Interview with Karina Elver

Interview with Karina Elver

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Interview with Karina Elver, Danish choreographer and former RDB dancer, a week before the premiere of La Sylphide in Ostrava. The premiere of La Sylphide is in less than a week. What have been the preparations like and have you been satisfied with the rehearsals with the NMST ballet so far?  I feel good, but a bit stressed, a lot of things have to come together and not everything is working out for me yet. We all (the staff, my assistants, costume department, stage technique, light, orchestra etc.) work very hard for the performance to look good and my dancers too which I am very proud of. They defiantly want to go forward. This piece is very difficult. I think it has been a good challenge for them, a lot of patience from them and a good humour, works for me. My wish is that the audience can sit back relaxed and enjoy the wonderful beautiful piece of music and ballet coming together.  You teach and stage Bournonville ballets and variations in many countries of the world and now you are working in America. Does the work vary in different countries? Today,I work a lot of in different places around the world and at the moment I am working mostly in New York.  In New York they work a lot and most people they only have 2 week’s holidays in a whole year. People in NY are like a melting pot, they are like crashing together, more alive and more structured - which creates the New York City, but on the other hand I don't see the individual personality in them as deeply as I do here in the Czech Republic.
But there is a big focus on dance in New York City. I am passionate about it and that is basically why I am there. When did your co-operation with the NMST ballet director start? I met Lenka Drimalova first time in 2008 in Prague where I was a guest teacher for The National Ballet.
She invited me to Brno to guest teach the ballet company. I felt we had a very good cooperation and so we did a Bournonville Lecture Demonstration for the Company. After that you know time is passing by quickly and all of a sudden I was in Poland, Poznan in 2010, staging La Sylphide and Lenka invited me to stage La Sylphide for Ostrava Ballet Company and we began all our preparations in January 2013.  What is your typical working day in Ostrava like? A typical Ostrava day starts with coffee. Then work.
I work here at the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre from 09:00-14:00 and again from 18:00 -22:00, also on Saturdays. In my free time I love to go to bikram yoga. It helps me to stay focused in work and in life, too.
After work at 22.00 I am very hungry after beer and a good dinner. Actually I want to tell you so much more but there will be no space in program.  Is it important for you to keep traditions (e.g. in ballet….)? What’s your personal relation to Bournonville? In general, traditiondefinitely means something to me but not in a crazy way like that I must have it like this and that. The tradition of the Bournonville dance style is very important for me because I grew up with it as a kid at The Theatre and it is like inside me because of so many year of dance at the Royal Danish Theatre with the style. I have had great teachers and instructors in this particular style who burned for keeping the tradition alive, some of them are dead now but one of them is still alive - my master teacher and instructor DinnaBjørn who also today supports me a lot and makes me updated in the work...  I am very happy that I am among the few to keep this tradition alive in the world. It doesn't mean that you cannot change the tradition of the Bournonville style. We see that sometimes with artists of new ideas it changes. It can be totally changed into modern piece of dance or just perhaps a few scenes like I have added in this production of La Sylphide. I have choreographed some extra scenes without changing the art and feeling of the piece and one have to be very careful about that - when you start opening up this fantastic material so I have thought a lot about how and where this could work out for me, the composer and hopefully Bournonville too.
And to be honest, I did it also because of I have always missed a little bit more dance in the 1stand 2nd act too.  What are your future plans after you leave Ostrava? Are you going to continue in staging Bournonville ballets and working with Bournonville ballet technique? When I am done here in Ostrava with my work, I will for period go back to Denmark for a little while. I have a daughter which graduate from high school this summer, so it's time to be there for her. After that I will go back to New York and work there the rest of the Summer. Then I will settle a bit more down in New York next season.  I will work with The Bournonville technique and stage some pieces from his work. I must say I have good succes with Bournonville style in USA and let's hope that continue they just love the style. But I also hope I will have a bit more time to work with my creative projects on the site.  Are you planning to come back to Ostrava? I am planning to come back to Ostrava again for sure because La Sylphide will be on the repertoire next season. Therefor it is important I blow some fire into it when the time comes. But I might already take a quick little trip soon because the second cast will also perform La Sylphide and for sure after the performance enjoy a good czech beer.  Are there any particular physical predispositions a dancer should have to excel in the Bournonville style? A dancer must have a strong classical background and it's a big plus if he or she has a good musical ear, good empathy ability, knowledge of acting and at the same time is open to understand the poetry of the steps.  Besides physical abilities, which criteria were important for you when selecting the dancers for the principal roles of La Sylphide and James here in Ostrava? There are very important character parts in La Sylphide: James, La Sylphide, Witch, James’s friend Gurn and the mother of James. All of these 5 characters have to kind of fit together. I look at if they have abilities to work truthfully with themselves to develop the character from inside. They must have some extra willpower to understand how important this is for the performance to come through strongly and not “how  I look.” How did the dancers of the Ostrava ballet ensemble cope with mastering the demanding Bournonville ballet technique? What challenges did they face? Natural expressions, teamwork, poetry, to work faster with legs, the importance to stay with own personality and the differentness to work and think on other kind of technique in the ballet - steps combined with a very important softness on the top of body.  On your website we can read that you have been studying acting for a long time. What are the benefits of acting training for a dancer? Is it important for their performance? What about acting in Bournonville style?  I can only say that for a dancer to work with acting will bring the dancer so much forward in being able to understand different kind of material that the dancer must work with during his or her career. In other hand the dancer will be so much more interesting to watch because it forces him to work deeper with himself. That goes for Bournonville style too.  For you as an artist, what is the main source of inspiration? What keeps you going in your work? Music is probably my main source and lot of other things inspire me, too. It is actually hard to say exactly what it is, or it can suddenly arise between people. However, during periods when I have time I like to try out new sides of myself. Currently it is meditation, sculpt, bikram yoga, psychology and reading. Compilation of interviews given on 17 and 20 April, 2014. We are very glad Ms Elver has shared her views and opinions with us.

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